CAMDEN – Some Camden police officers will begin to hand over their badges and guns within 24 hours due to deep citywide budget cuts. In fact, it could lose ½ of it’s total force.
The city is also going to lose 60 firefighters – that is 1/3rd of it’s force. We have been talking about it for weeks and now it is all but a reality. Camden – one if the nation’s most dangerous cities – is facing massive police and firefighter layoffs.
Fox 29’s Steve Keeley reports from Camden this morning that at 1:30pm the pastor at St. Anthony of Padua, Father Jud Weiksnar, will hold a rally at the church to support the men and woman who face these layoffs – and Father Jud adds, it is no consentience that this rally falls on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Fr. Jud told Steve, “We are the only church in the entire country that we know of doing community organizing for Martin Luther King Day, rather than community service. We think if the community organizes then we will have a stronger voice so things like this don’t not happen. We consider this to be a structural injustice that you can lay off ½ of a police force. “
On Tuesday at 9am, all the police officers who are due to be let go will gather at FOP headquarters and then walk in a group up Federal Street to Police headquarters where they will all turn in their guns and badges at the same time.
With cuts looming, the Guardian Angels have arrived in Camden. Forty angels will walk the streets of Camden in their familiar red berets from 11 a.m. until midnight. Some Camden residents asked by Fox 29 News said they're happy to see the Guardian Angels in their community, but they are no replacement for police.
Stay with Fox 29 for the latest on the layoffs and the planned rallies.